Abraham Chavez Theater focus of Hispanic Cultural Center subcommittee

More discussion at Tuesday’s City Council meeting about El Paso’s new Hispanic Cultural Center.

The Hispanic Cultural subcommittee put in charge of studying its future construction is starting to zero in on potential locations in the Downtown area. And with just $5.7 million set-aside to fund what is expected to be called the new Mexican-American Cultural Center, the subcommittee is focusing on finding a city-owned building to re-purpose.

The one mentioned the most has been the 40-year-old Abraham Chavez Theater, according to the chair of the subcommittee, district attorney Jaime Esparza.

The theater opened in 1975 as a state-of-the-art theater, but it’s showing its age. Esparza says the subcommittee has looked at a variety of downtown properties, most of them city-owned. He indicated there is an item on the agenda for Wednesday’s subcommittee meeting to talk more about the theater as the possible location of the cultural center.

Esparza said the beauty of using a city-owned building is being able to maximize the limited funding. But he indicated many questions remain to be answered.

“How is it utilized now?” Esparza said. “Is it available? It’s an old building. It’s a little tired. Is the money available that the city has right now, $5.7 million? If the property was turned over to the cultural center, or dedicated to the cultural center, is the $5.7 million sufficient to really to dress it up.”

As far as utilization, a look at the El Paso Live web site shows only six events scheduled at the Abraham Chavez Theater over the next three months.

Esparza said the subcommittee has until the end of the year to answer questions like the center’s name, location, size, budget and funding opportunities. He said matters are moving so quickly, they expect to have all that by next month.